Independence Day
Fourth of July
-- Back in the good old days, Elgin really knew how to celebrate the Fourth
of July with a bang. Beginning the evening before the holiday, the city reverberated with
the sharp reports and crackle of fireworks. The aftermath was often bloody, and many homes
had anguished, conscience-stricken parents.
In 1899, seven local celebrants had facial burns,
six suffered hand lacerations, four lost one or more fingers, and one was left with a
ruptured eardrum. The next year, the Daily News stated that "doctors had the usual
number of cases of burned faces and mutilated fingers." In 1901, a ten-year old boy
died of a wound in his abdomen, and the list of injuries included one person's cheek and
another's mouth torn by blank cartridges, a finger amputated by a cannon cracker, and two
sight impairments. The first victim in 1904 was none other than the Elgin chief of police,
who was a bystander when a boy pounded the pavement with a repeating dynamite shot cane.
Doctors used pliers to extract a piece of flat steel nearly an inch in diameter from his
cheek.
For the country as a whole, during the celebration
of five national birthdays, from 1903 through 1907 inclusive, 1,153 persons were killed
and 20,520 injured. Of the injured, 88 suffered total blindness and 389 partial blindness;
308 lost arms, legs or hands; and 1,067 lost one or more fingers. Of course, these were
all accidents, or to use a current line of reasoning fireworks don't do any harm, people
do.
The movement for a "safe and sane" holiday
grew with the annual casualty lists, and it gained momentum with the publication of
"Our Barbarous Fourth" by Mrs. Isaac L. Rice in Century magazine for June, 1908.
Only one city in the country had then curbed the custom of observing the day with
gunpowder. Few elected officials wanted to call a halt for fear of being charged
with a lack of patriotism and denying Americans the right to express their rugged
independence of social controls.
Public sentiment, however, was aroused against what
Rice called "a sadder commentary on human folly than that afforded by any other
celebration in the world." Influential periodicals joined with women's groups,
hospital administrators, and the American Medical Association in pushing for a ban on the
explosives. President William Howard Taft denounced what he termed the "inane
and foolish" practice and asked cities to take action. Locally, the Daily
Courier reproduced on its front page the widely circulated painting, The Glorious
Fourth, which pictured a mother weeping at the bedside of her maimed child.
On July 5 the Elgin papers continued to tally the
injuries, broken windows, and fires. "A face full of powder was an often repeated
phrase. In 1907, one man was wounded by a glancing bullet from the revolver of a
patriot who disdained using blanks. In 1912, cannon crackers mutilated four hands,
and toy canons claimed a finger and shattered a leg. According to the Daily News,
"scores of persons, especially children, were burned by firecrackers and fireworks.
Drugstores were busy supplying salves and medicines." The
Fourth of July in 1891 featured a revival of the Parade of the Horribles of 1878 and a
continuation of injuries from fireworks. A 16year old boy had his right hand, except
for the thumb, blown to shreds by an exploding toy cannon. The ligaments and nerves
were exposed, and the hand had to be amputated at the wrist. Several other
celebrants ended the day with faces blackened and specked by powder.
The city physicians prepared for Independence Day in
1914 by stocking up anti-toxin serum and issuing a list of do's and don'ts.
"Don't look a Roman candle in the muzzle to see why it didn't didn't go off ... Under
no circumstances should any fireworks, when lighted for explosion, be thrown near
individuals, particularly girls and ladies. Be sure to have a supply of picric
acid Solution for burns and tincture of iodine for other injuries, together with a package
of sterile gauze cotton and bandages."
Finally, in 1917, the Elgin City Council approved an
ordinance that forbade the sale of and discharge of fireworks within the city except for
licensed displays. The ban included toy guns and cannons, blank cartridges, torpedoes,
bombs, rockets and & man candles. Passage was suggested by the need to reserve
explosives for war use. State legislation later provided uniform regulations.
Public opinion was behind the law. Those who chose to violate it had
difficulty in obtaining explosives, and injuries began a marked decline. By the time
the Fourth was relatively safe from fireworks, attention had shifted to the perils of the
highway.
